A semiconductor wafer (hereinafter wafer) is manufactured by a highly complex manufacturing process. The manufacturing process can be monitored by detecting defects by a dual phase process. A first phase of the process includes placing the wafer in an atmospheric environment and inspecting the wafer, by an inspection tool, to detect suspected defects. A second phase of the process includes placing the wafer in a vacuumed environment and reviewing the suspected defects by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to detect actual defects.
The amount of suspected defects can be very large in which case suspected defects information may require substantial communication resources for being communicated between the inspection tool and the SEM. For example, the suspected defects information may require substantial memory resources for being stored in the inspection tool and in the SEM. Also, the transition of the wafer from the inspection tool in the first phase of the process to the SEM in the second phase may require the SEM to perform a time consuming and complex alignment process in order to locate the suspected defects.
There is a growing need to provide efficient systems and methods for inspecting and reviewing a wafer.